Operation-control record



H. A. AmHUR.

OPERATION CONTROL RECORD. APPucATxoN HLED APR. 21. 1919.

.sagmal by Patented Apr. 6, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Maslr Renard. Card.

Order No,

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Heesen: Far DAlay (lfmny) ATTORNEY.

r1NTED STATES PATENT OFFTEQ HARRY A. ARTHUR, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

OPERATION-CGNTROL RECORD.

Application led. April 21,

To all whom t may concern: y

Be it known that l, HARRY A. ARTHUR, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented an Improvement in Operation-Control Records, ofwhich the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in means designed to enable persons engaged in manufacturing or' other analogous business to ascertain readily and quickly the condition of work or other forms of transactions which are being put through or effected in the plant or establishment.

For instance, assuming that a manufacturing concern receives orders for certain to be manufactured which require st a foundry operation and second a ma- :l inery operation7 it may become necessary from time to time for the central olfice to answer queries as to the condition of the orders that are in the factory or other point in the establishment. In such cases, obviouslv` it would be very desirable if means were at hand which would enable someone in the central oi'fce to ascertain readily and at a the condition of the work-whether it still is in the foundry or whether the work in the found y has been completed and forwarded to the machine shop department and if it has been forwarded to the latter department.l whether it is still there or whether it has been conigleted and shipped.

lroadly speaking, it is the object of my invention to provide means whereby this information may, at all times, be present at nated place, such as the central oflice. and such shape as to be readily ltblc.

. further object of my invention is to provide means whereby the different departments of an establishment, in which work of one lic' nl or another is to be performed` may l -t to the central o'llice compleof worl: which shall have been performed and completed in such departments.

A further object of my invention is to provide means including certain external, visible che.racteristics` the presence or absence of which, ascertainable by a mere glance7 indicates to the person making the examination the condition of the particular piece of work in which such person may be interested.

Speccaton of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. (i, 1920.

1919. Serial No. 291,701.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will be pointed out in the detailed description thereof which follows or will be apparent from such description.

ln order that my invention may be readily understood and its practical and commercial advantages may be fully appreciated7 reference shouldVV be had to the accompanying drawings in which l have illustrated different forms of embodiment thereof; that is, different means by the employment of which the system involved in my invention maybe practised. It will be understood that the means for visually indicating` the condition of any particular piece or item of work which may be on hand in a plant may be varied and changed within the scope of the claims without departing from my invention. lt is to be understood therefore that my invention is not limited to the exact arrangement of cards or the particular characteristics thereof as shown in the drawings and as described in the specification.

ln the drawings:

Figure l is a perspective view of a series of cards constituting the master file of the system;

.2 is a similar view of a series of cards constituting a dum my lile and relating to the machine shop of a manufacturing plant;

Fig. 3 is a corresponding view of a series of cards relating to the foundry department;

Fig card:

Fig. 5 is a face view of a machine sliep record card;

Fig. 6 is a face view of a card withdrawn from the foundry dummy file;

Fig. 7 is a corresponding view of a card withdrawn from the machine shop dummy rile;

Fig: S is a perspective view of a series of. cards showing a modified construction and arrangement thereof for visually or graphically indicating the condition of work in a manufacturing or other business establishment;

Fig. 9 is a face view of a machine shop' record card;

l0 is like view of a foundry record card: and Figs, ll and 'l2 are face views of cards withdrawn from the lile shown in Fig. 8.

Referring to Figs. l to 7 inclusive of the 4e is fare view of a foundry record done.

drawings, 1 designates the master file cards each of which is numbered, the numbers beginning with the numeral 1 and running as high as may be desired. rlhe cards are arranged in numerical sequence as indicated. In Fig. 1 it will be noted that the iirst card shown is numbered S75 and as indicated, the remainingcards therein are numbered in sequential order. Upon the master cards is placed the data relating to an order upon the receipt of the same. These master cards may contain such information as desired. In the system as illustrated they contain certain permanent data as follows 2- Master record card. Customers name. Customers order No. Description (brief) Delivery promised.

y This data may be changed, if desired or if required by the nature of the transactions of which record is being kept. ln the spaces following each of these permanent headings the appropriate information should be inand entered, the clerk in charge of the file or lile room should insert immediately after the card containing the data respecting the order a card bearing a projection having thereon the date dan 1 as shown at 2 in Fig. l of the drawings.

In order to facilitate the location of a card or cards bearing any particu ar number the iles are provided at intervals with cards having projections thereon upon whicl numbers are shown. For instance, in Fig. 1 one of the cards is provided with a projection having thereon the number 900 as shown at 5 and at a succeeding or fol lowing place in the file another card is provided with a projection bearing thereon the ninnber 950, as shown at 6. lt is obvious that any nuinber intermediate these two numbers or between any other two numbers which may be displayed these are displayed may be readily located by any person in charge ofthe file or any other person who may have occasion to examine the same. Upon receipt of an order the data concerning` the same is entered upon a master card and thereafter orders are sent to the foundry and machine sliep departments, such orders bearing the same number as the master card, together' with other information such as the custome1"s name and the work to be The order having been received in the foundry department the work is proceeded with ane `when completed, report thereon is forwarded to the main ollice where the master and dummy card files are kept. The foundry department is provided with cards numbered consecutively, the numbers corresponding with those upon the cards of the master file and of the dummy files in the main or central office of the plant or establishment. These cards should be of some color fixed upon, such as green as shown in Fig. 4l of the drawings, different from the cards in the foundry dummy file in the cen tral oiiice. These cards have certain data or headings printed thereon as for example the following Foundry record card. Completed.

Reasons for delay.77 Signed by.

Upon completion of the work in the foundry, a report is made to the central oliice by placing appropriate information upon the foundry record card such as is shown at 10 and forwarding the same to the central oflice. For instance, in the space following Completed on said card the date d an. 20, 1919 may be inserted and if there has been delay as to which it is desirable that an explanation shall be given, such explanation may be given after the words Reasons for delay (if any) and the name of the person making' the report may be placed in the Vspace following the words Signed by on the card. Upon receipt of this green card at the central office it will be inserted in lieu of a card number 900 in the foundry dummy file 11, the cards of which are of pink or red color. The withdrawn card 12 is shown in Fig. 6. Assuming that the work which. has "hns been completed in the foundry department is te be machined, it is then forwarded to the machine sliep where such machiningl operations as may be necessary are performed. After the machining operations shall have been performed the machineA shop superintendent or some other person fills in a card 13 such as is shown in Fig. which is purple in color and forwards the same to the central ofiice indicating' thereon the date of completion of the work and insertingI thereon information as to the reasons for any delay which may have occurred. Upon receipt of this card at the central ol'liee it is substituted for a card of the same number in the machine shop dunnny file left the cards of which are of a contrasting blue color. The card withdrawn from the ii-'iachine shop dummy lilo is shown at 15 in Fig. 7.

These withdrawn dummy cards 12 and l5 may be destroyed or they may be placed in the master card file in association with the master card of corresponding number, as may be preferred. y

it will be noted that the two dummy files 11 and 14 are each provided with extra or divisional cards having thereon projections it their upper edges upon Which are printed respectively the dates J an. l, Jan. 2 and the numbers 900 and 950 as in' the master lile series of cards 1.

lt may be that certain orders have been made special and that it is desirable to keep special track of the saine. rlhis may be done by placing upon the cards pertaining to these orders in the master and dunnny tiles detachable tabs as indicated :it 2O and Q1. The presence of these tabs would 'lidicute thet the orders to which the cards upon which they are placed relate arc special and shall be rushedthrough as quiclny as possible or that they are entitled to some other special consideration.

lt will be noted that the series or" master cards l are white and that the cards of the foundry and machine shop dummy liles are pink or red and blue respectively and that 'ne cards upon which reports are made 'troni he foundry department troni the mahine shop to the central ce :irc respecively green and purple. ivill be undertood however, that cards any other color or colors may be employed, 's that there shall be contrasting colors so that any person in the central oa-ee by glance at the dummy files may condition of the Work in the pari partmeuts to which those files reis; instance it he erm; nes the t u. drv

e shown in Fie' ,Luminy il and finds that oi' the bds therein are pinl he lnioivs at reports ot Work completed have b' en received from the foundry department, be-

- f not find the" i any green 'nic l have been substituted Yior the f @n the other it he iinds this `tile made up of green i he linovss that all o't the work coind Within the dates in which he may be ested has been completed in ti C rhe mac ine shop dinnmv fil pnble of telling the same sto iden e same Yay and by reason of tl 't cards or contrasting colors Y ion required may be ol ined without i iecessity of a laborious ninution and ot various orders files. etc. It is 1 that the dummy les display or visually the b 'ion ot the e particular department ot the which they te. instead ot tne separate dummy .files as shown in Figs. 2 and 3 these tiles may be combined in a single tile .vith the master card tile shown in 1, ln the .latter sug- .f'ested arrangement dummy cards for the rourdry and for the machine shop departments would be placed in the same lil-e thc master cards and all the cards oit the same number would be associated or placed in approximate relation With respect to each other. The principle oi. opeation would not be changed but would remain just as previously described.

ln Figs. 8 to 12 inclusive of the drawings l. have illustrated a different means by which a series ci cards may be made to indicate graphically the condition oit Work upon the various orders which may have been received by a concern and which may be in process of being filled. ln the scheme or system as described in connection with Figs. 1 to 7 inclusive contrasting colors ot the cards are depended upon tor indicating graphically or visually the condition or status of the Worlr Wherever it may be in the establishment Whereas in the system as illustrated in Figs. S to l2 inclusive, all ot the cards may be et the same color. ln the latter case the cards are provided With certain characteristic features ot construction by means of which they indicate graphically the condition or status oi" the Work. in the le of cards illustrated in S it .vill be observed that they are numbered in sequential order and that there are three cards of each number. @ne of these is the master record card, one the machine shop record und the other the foundry record card. The tivo 'last mentioned cards; namely, the machine shop record and the foundry record card correspond to the cards found in the dummy liles shovvn in Figs. 2 and 3 respectively. Each et these cards as Well ns the master record card is provided with a projection as indicated at 30. These cards are separated at intervals into groups by cards having project-ions 31 upon Which appear the dates just us in the arrangement shown and described in connection with 1 to 7 inclusive. These date-bearing cards are inserted following the lest order of each day and each card thus inserted bears the date of the succeeding` d av upon vvhi ch it is expected that orders Vwill be received. Upon the receipt of an order st the central or other office Where orders are received and handled. if it is yfound to hear the customers order number. this number together with the customers name and such other information as may be thou ght desirable is placed upon the'master record card. which as has already been pointed out bears a number. Thereafter, assnmine` that the first Work in filling` the ordei` is to be done in the foundry. instructions are sent to the foundry department in the usual form giving the number corresponding to the number of the master card on vliich the data concerning the said order previously shall have been placed. also the customers order number and any other information which it is desirable should be transmitted to the foundry.

There is kept in the foundry department a series oi cards having printed thereon the Words Foundry record card, also headings calling for further information as de scribed in connection with Figs. 1 to 7. One of these cards is indicated at 35 in Fig. 10. These cards are sequentially numbered to correspond with the numbers upon the cards in the central or other office in which the orders from customers are received and handled. They are not provided with projections as are the cards in the central office, shown in Fig. 8. Upon the completion of the work in the foundry, one of these cards is filled out by placing in the spaces following the headings referred to the appropriate information. The vcard indicated in Fig. 10 is the number 2 foundry record card.

Assuming that after the work shall have been finished in the foundry department it is to pass through a machining operation, it would then be forwarded to the machine shop. This department also is provided Vwith a series of machine shop record cards,

one of which is shown at 36 in Fig. 9. These cards are similar to the foundry record cards 35 and they each bear a heading cMachine shop record card together with certain headings as indicated. In the spaces following these headings certain appropriate information may be placed. After the work is finished in the machine shop a card suchas is shown in Fig. 9 is properly filled out and forwarded to the central or other office where the complete record is kept just as in the case of the foundry card. These cards as they are received in the main or other office are substituted for the dummy machine shop cards bearing like numbers inthe file shown in Fig. 8. As has been described and as is apparent from an inspection of Fig. 8 of the drawings the cards originally in the central office file are each provided with projections having thereon numbers corresponding to the number of the master card. Upon receipt of the correspondingly numbered cards from the foundry and machine shop they are substituted for the foundry and machine shop dummy cards having the projections so that upon an inspection of a file such as shown in Fig. 8 it is apparent at a glance whether or not all of the work in the two departments inquestion has been completed and reports to that effect forwarded to the main orother office and filed. 'Ihe cards such as the cards 87 and 38 in Figs. 11 and 12 after having been removed from the file may be destroyed or not as desired.

Upon inspection of Fig. 8 it will be obi served that the cards pertaining to the foundry and machine shop which bear the numbers upon the tabs in Figs. .l1 and 12 have been 'withdrawn and the cards without tabs or projections received from the foundry and machine shop substituted therefor. It is likewise apparent that the foundry and machine shop cards have been received in the central office in the cases of the orders 7 and 8 and substituted for the cards originally in the file and which bore projections having thereon the numbers 7 and 8.

As in the system or scheme illustrated in Figs. 1 to 7 inclusive, if it is desired to make certain orders special and to indicate this fact in the file7 this may be done by placing special tabs 40 upon the master cards pertaining to these orders.

In both systems or schemes it is apparent that means is provided whereby at a glance a person may ascertain the condition of the work for which the same may be designed.

I have described my invention in connection with a scheme for keeping track of or for supplying knowledge with respect to the foundry and machine shop departments. However, it will be understood that the system or scheme is applicable to other departments and to other kinds of work. The scheme may be extended to include not only the foundry and machine shop departments l but the shipping department and other departments as well. As already indicated the scheme is not confined to a manufacturing establishment but is applicable in any case where it is desirable that a main or central office shall at all times be able to ascertain the condition of transactions of any nature which may be in hand provided the transactions are such as are susceptible of being designated by numbers or numerical reference.

lVhile the means employed in the scheme illustrated in Figs. 8 to 12 inclusive for indicating visually and at a glance the condition of work of whatever character in an establishment is different from what is shown in Figs. 1 to 7 it is apparent that the principle of operation of the two schemes or systems is identical and that either may be employed as may be desired, the two schemes functioning inidentically the same manner.

The dummy foundry and machine shop cards in the file shown in Fig. 8 which are associated with the respective master record cards and which are provided with the projections at their upper edges, having numbers thereon corresponding to the numbers upon the master record cards with which they are associated, correspond to they cards of the dummy files shown in Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawings and whenever in the claims the words dummy file or dummy card are employed they will be understood to include not only the cards in the files shown in Figs. 2 and 3 but also the similarly functioning cards comprised in the file shown in Fig. 8.

I claim:

l. An operationcontrol card record file comprising a master Card file in Which the cards are sequentially numbered, dummy cards associated with said master Cards and being correspondingly numbered and cards adapted to be substituted for the said dummy Cards for indicating when Work to which the said third mentioned Cards relate has been completed.

2. An operatioireontrol oard record iile system comprising master record cards sequentially numbered, one 0r more groups of dummy cards having, colors contrasting` With the color of the master record cards and With each other and other Cards adapted to be substituted for the said dummy cards said other cards having colors contrasting With the said dummy Cards for which they are substituted.

3. An operation-control card record iile system comprising master record Cards sequentially numbered, dummy cards having means whereby they form a contrast With the master record cards and other cards adapted to be substituted for the said dummy cards which other Cards contrast With the said dummy and master record Cards.

L1. An operation-control card record system comprising master record Cards sequentially numbered, one or more series of cards having numbers corresponding to the numbers upon the master record Cards and one or more series of Cards having characteristies whereby they form a contrast with the Cards of the second named series and being adapted to be substituted therefor.

5. An operation-Control card file system comprising a master record card lile, the cards therein being sequentially numbered, a plurality of dummy liles the color of the cards in any tile dillering from the Color of the cards in each of the other liles and each dummy file pertaining to a particular department of the business to which the system relates and cards of Contrasting Col ors containing information thereon as to the status of the Work in the department from which the said Cards emanate which are adapted to be substituted for cards in the proper dummy tile.

G. An operation-control Card lile system, comprising a master card ile, the cards therein being sequentially numbered, a plurality of dummy tiles, the characteristics of the Cards in any file differing from the Characteristics or" the Carus in each of the other tiles, and each dummy file pertaining to a particular department oi the business to which the system relates, and cards of contrasting characteristics Containing information thereon as to the status of the Work in the department from which the said cards emanate, which are adapted to be substituted for Cards of the proper dummy lile.

In testimony that I elaim the foregoing as my invention I 'have hereunto set my name this 17 day of April, 1919.

HARRY A. ARTHUR. 

